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Adam,
The Dwarf/Pygmy puffer I have is called Carinotetraodon tranvancoricus, grows to 1" and comes from India, and I believe is the smallest of Puffers.
The figure of 8 puffer Tetraodon biocellatus grows to 3".
There is a good article on Fresh water Puffers in issue 7/july2004 Practical fishkeeping.
Regards,
Des.

Cheers Des, I obviously had the wrong type I will look up the puffer you mentioned. Whilst my three clowns are effective at snail control they are getting rather large and are too boisterous, there's also the issue of using copper based treatments with them. The dwarf puffers sound like a good option as they only grow to 1".

Thanks.

No. The dwarf puffer only gets to about an inch. Those others you stated are regular puffers. I use them also. Great for snail clean up and leave other fish and shrimp alone.

I've got two dwarf puffers which I picked up two weeks back...they've nearly cleaned out all the snail in the tank. full of personality too!

no dwarf puffs are dwarf puffs figureeights get 3-6 inches bigger not sure DPs stay at like 1/2 inch i love them

Puffers wouldn't be a good choise to keep eggs clean though, and nor a good companionship for Zebras

But I agree, very funny fish, great personality, but need extra care. Some of them are only freshwaterfish when they're small, grafully needing more brackish water. They also need to be fed clams (with the shells on) or rather large snail, in order to keep their teeth (beak) healthy. If they don't get a chanse to grind their teeth down on something they will grow larger, eventually rendering the fish unable to eat.

Some (most) of them are also very territorial. Some can only be held together with other puffers at a young age, later on they have to be kept alone.

Zebra + puffer? Usually not a good idea

most of that is not true of the dwarf puffer they dont want and dont tolerate salt they dont get bigger then an inch (and at that they realy dont look it ) they arnt good for cleaning eggs thats true they DONT need clams small (as small as there little eye like 1 mm snails are what these guys need but they do kill and eat bigger ones but they go straight for the meat not the shell) dwarfs dont suffer from the not being able to eat becuase the teeth are to big although to keep them healthy snails are still highly recomended they ARE teritorial and they need three gallons per fish so there is plenty of room between them and loads of plants to cut down on fighting (they can fight to the death if they realy hate eachother)
and they like to get freindly with the oppisite gender in java or willow moss

I feed mine live shrimp some almost twice the size of my DP's...I normally chuck about 30 in the tank...some for my Black Ghost Knife fish too.
Everytime I throw them in the DP's rush round and chomp on all the shrimp until they're all dead and then maybe eat a couple. The rest they just leave lying dead on the tank floor....I think they just like killing stuff.

o ya they dont realy eat much of it they just like to kill although it depends on the DP i have shrimp with mine
also feeding live and frozen worms is good shrimp dont have much nutrients on them not the best staple food

thebuddy wrote:most of that is not true of the dwarf puffer

I was speaking of puffers in general, not specifically dwarf puffers. And yes, it is true that their beak needs to be used, as it grows their whole life, like a rabbit. Do a search on trimmin puffer beak and you'll see

They obiously don't eat the shell, but need to munch through it to get to their food, or - their beak wont get ground down regularily, and yes - can grow to the point where they can't eat any longer. There's nothing revolutionary and new about this. It's all facts that's been known for quite some time

i KEEP them and know more about them then you yes MOST puffers beaks grow however there has never been an instance in history were a dwarf puffer could not eat do to this problem

Buddy.

This is a friendly informative forum, please try be a little less defensive.

Rob

however there has never been an instance in history were a dwarf puffer could not eat do to this problem

How can you know that?

okay correctoin there has never been a DOCUMENTED instance of a dwarf puffer having this problem

IMO that is due to the fact that they live like 3 years not enough time to get any dentistry problems

in bigger puffs even eating snails/clams dosnt work it only slows it eventuly you have to hold the puffer and clip its teeth down to size the current idea is that if you feed it hard foods you still have to trim them every 6 months or so

A quick search on the net reveals that not verybody agrees with you on the puffers need of beak care, neither what water chemistry they prefer

Like Rob said, no need to get defensive, we try to keep our discussions in a friendly and respectful manner on this forum.

It's also interesting to note that those that possess large amount of knowledge rarely feels the need to get defensive or show anger in a discussion. They feel secure enough about what they know and have experienced in, to not feel the need do that

It's not the case that you always have to trim their beak either, if they get the right diet to work their teeth on then nature takes care of that. If puffers needed to get their beak trimmed every 6 months regardless they'd have some trouble surviving in the wild...

Anyways, way off topic here noe - puffers aren't stripey black and white, nor can they care for Zebra eggs